Orange Chicken and Vegetable Stir-Fry

If your family is a fan of Chinese food, chances are you’ve ordered a dish called Orange Chicken. There are so many variations of this dish that most people’s culinary experience eating it really depends on each person’s palate. Sometimes the dish will have a strong soy sauce flavor to it. Other times Orange Chicken will be sweet and tangy, almost like a sweet and sour dish. However, this dish can be easily re-created in your home kitchen based on how you like it.

Using ginger, garlic, soy sauce, rice vinegar, orange zest and juice, and oyster sauce as a base, you can adjust this sauce to your liking. Whenever I’m cooking stir-fry, I like to make the sauce first. Generally speaking, I always recommend to people when making a stir-fry sauce to taste as you go, tweaking it until you’re happy with it.

Now, if you’ve ever ordered Orange Chicken from a Chinese fast-food chain with a Panda as its logo, then you are familiar with how sweet and spicy their version is. This version is not that dish. However, if you prefer a similar type of flavor, feel free to sweeten your sauce up with sugar, honey, agave, etc. Personally speaking, I like to add two tablespoons of granular evaporated cane juice. This helps with slightly caramelizing the sauce making it thicker, but I wouldn’t say it makes the sauce sickly sweet. Once again, taste as you go and make the changes you want to make this sauce your own. Like it spicy? Add red pepper flakes. Like it with more orange flavor, add more zest. Fan of garlic, add a few more cloves. Be as creative as you want to be.

Lastly, I would like to offer this tip when it comes to vegetables. Some vegetables should be slightly cooked before adding to the stir-fry. These vegetables would include large broccoli crowns, green beans, and largely cubed root vegetables. By cooking them first, the texture is more ideal for stir-frying with softer vegetables like mushroom, shredded cabbage, thinly sliced onions, carrots, etc.

If you like this recipe, try my Easy Fried Rice. Watch the here video.

Recipe: Orange Chicken and Vegetable Stir-Fry

Prep Time: 15 min(s)

Cook Time: 10 min(s)

Total Time: 25 min(s)

Servings: 4-6

If you’ve always wanted to make your own Chinese restaurant food at home, this recipe is a great one to add
to your collection. Enjoy!

You add all the ingredients under the “sauce” heading. The “stirfry” heading lists the non-sauce ingredients. Seems pretty clear to me…

Liz

Could you use a store bought sauce to save time? If so, what one do you reccomend??

Alice Currah

Hi Liz,
I’m sure you could but I wouldn’t be able to recommend a brand or type since I don’t usually buy sauce. However, you could probably go to any Asian market and find a bottle of Orange sauce.

Bekah

Hi Liz! The sauce would be really easy to make! I haven’t made this recipe but I love to cook and I wouldn’t process it because I hate cleaning food processors. So just put it in a seal-able container (ex: mason jar) and shake well. Easy peasy! And way more delicious than a store bought sauce.

Bekah

and mince the garlic really well.

cassy

I agree…The instructions are pretty clear to me as well. Of course you don’t blend everything….it says “Sauce”! Thanks Alice,This is a great recipe! I made it tonight and it’s delicious!

Elizabeth

Made this tonight and it was quite yummy! I didn’t feel like pulling out my food processor so I just whisked the sauce ingredients together. It turned out just fine and saved me some clean up.

http://www.pinterestexperiment.wordpress.com Ashley

I made this recipe tonight and the flavors were all great (I didn’t have oyster sauce so I used 1/2 tsp peanut sauce & 1 tsp hoisen sauce). I also added 1 tsp of sesame seeds to the sauce.

I was wondering why my version wasn’t looking like the photo — hmm, probably because I missed this step:
>> Heat the sauce in a large skillet on medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Carefully transfer the sauce to a heat proof bowl.<< UGH. Now I have to try it again!

Thx for sharing!

http://www.thescramble.com Aviva Goldfarb

This was delicious, Alice, I loved the natural flavors in the orange sauce!

http://bibberche.com Lana

Alice, my girls love Orange Chicken, and it’s so hard to find the recipe that’s not breaded and deep fried. I am definitely going to make this!

Rachel

I have made this twice and I am a noob at most things cooking. Very simple, very good.

Rachel

Wanted to add that the sauce tastes a little funny untill you heat it. I was worried I did something wrong at first. Plus we add red pepper for heat if we are feeling up to it. Thanks for the recipe!

Jen

This was awesome. I added 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes to the sauce to give it a kick, and that was delicious.

Christina

My family inhaled this recipe the first time I made it, so going to make it again. Instead of the orange juice, zest, & optional sweetener, I used 1/2 cup Orange Marmalade, and it was awesome!

Cookingcutie

I made this last night for dinner, and the sauce was fabulous! I added 1 tsp sriracha and 1 tsp honey, and I think the balance of salty/sweet/spicy was perfect. I used a whole red pepper, 2 cups chopped broccoli florets, and 2 cups sliced mushrooms, and there was plenty of veggies and chicken for 4 portions (I used closer to 11 oz chicken & reduced the cornstarch to 2 tbs instead of 3). It was great with brown rice. I didn’t blend the sauce, but instead browned the chicken, removed from the pan, cooked the onions, then added the veggies and grated ginger and let that cook. Then I added the sauce mixture & chicken back to the pan. This is a repeat.

http://www.facebook.com/pearl.gaitskill Pearl Gaitskill

Delicious! Thanks, Christina, for the marmalade tip – that saved so much time!

anything made at home is better, so make your sauce at home! That said orange chicken is really awesome.

http://www.weberclean.com/ Kyle-Carpet Cleaning Fargo

Thanks for the post, this is my girlfriends favorite meal and cannot wait to make it for her.

Rachel Santana

Don’t play with the recipe and you have a winner. The only thing you might could possibly change is what kind of veggies you want to steam up with it. Sooooo good!

yvette evans

Did not enjoy this at all. The sauce was weird. I made it exactly as stated. Don’t know where the orange/brown color that is caramelized on the chicken came from because the sauce is watery and dark brown so doesn’t really seep into the chicken. Must be photos taken that have been enhanced like the magazines. Throwing this one away.

John R

I made it this evening, and it was very good. I stuck to the recipe, but added 2 tbs of agave syrup and a pinch of cayenne pepper